A former Nottinghamshire Police officer who has been jailed after pleading guilty to his role in supplying drugs 'boasted openly about illegal steroid abuse', a court heard.

Bodybuilder Gareth Golds, who was based as Radford Road police station, offered to sell the class C drugs through a closed WhatsApp group, Derby Crown Court was told.

The former PC, of Kirk Hallam, 'turned a blind eye to criminality' and boasted to his drug-dealing friends how he "hated the pigs" when referring to other officers, the Derby Telegraph reports .

It was told that, in one message posted to the group, a friend told the others on it that he was at Gold's address "raking up lines (of cocaine) on a copper's kitchen table" and that Golds was "coked up". Now, the 31-year-old has been jailed for two years, leaving his wife to bring up their four-month son without his father.

Sending Golds, Judge Peter Cooke said: "You grossly breached the trust that the public placed on you as a serving police officer. You turned a blind eye to your friends' criminality, openly bragging about it on WhatsApp.

"You took steroids and offered to supply them to others and this was, in my view, active engagement in criminality. At the very least, what you were doing constituted sanctioning the supply of selling controlled drugs.

"You called police officers 'pigs' and, by doing so, showed thorough and active contempt for the institution that employed you."

Adrian Langdale, prosecuting, said matters came to light during a different investigation when analysis of a seized mobile phone unearthed a closed WhatsApp group, which Golds, of St Norbert Drive, Kirk Hallam, near Ilkeston, was "one of the forum's busiest posters" on.

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Mr Langdale said: "It is a disgraceful abhorration that a serving police officer is involved in this. There were thousands of references to drugs and their supply on this forum and Mr Golds was enthusiastically engaging.

"One message from another poster said 'pigs (police) have raided my weed (cannabis) grow' to which Mr Golds replied saying 'hate the pigs'. In terms of drugs supply, Mr Golds openly talks about using steroids, and selling or distributing them on a number of occasions.

"This is a serving police officer boasting and encouraging others to take steroids. He was actively turning a blind eye and allowing criminality to flourish."

Mr Langdale said Golds was arrested in May 2016 and police recovered illegal anabolic steroids from his home. He gave "no comment" answers to the questions he was asked. But he later pleaded guilty to charges of encouraging or assisting the supply of class C controlled drugs, offering to supply a class C controlled drug and misconduct in a public office.

The court heard he has since lost his job with the force. John Thomas, mitigating, said Golds had recently become a father whose son is now four months old.

He said: "There is acute embarrassment for someone who finds themselves in Mr Golds' position. This is somebody that has not shied away from what he has done, he has lost his job and he has lost his income.

"He became involved with his childhood friends who were involved in drug dealing and he did not disclose his association with them. This is a case of misconduct through association."

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A second man, Christopher Law, 44, of Wesley Street, Ilkeston, who owns the Platinum Gym, in Ilkeston, was also arrested as part of the investigation. He pleaded guilty to supplying steroids and was jailed for six months.

"The deliberate actions and subsequent conviction of PC Golds fundamentally undermines the trust and confidence placed in him by the force and damages public confidence in policing.

"The very detailed investigation that led to the conviction of PC Golds demonstrates that the force takes any corrupt practice by its police officers extremely seriously and will deal with such criminality decisively."